For a difference, the ‘People’ magazine of the Time magazine group, which usually features celebrities and film stars, in the latest issue of the Indian edition has profiled a self less teacher, fondly know as ‘Anand Kumar Super 30′. The issue of the magazine lists Anand Kumar, the founder of Super 30, a free coaching centre which trains children from the poor families for entry into the prestigious IITs, as “People’s Hero” and carries detailed feature on his work.

The feature describes how, Anand Kumar, working almost alone for over 10 years has helped about 263 students with very poor background to make it to the prestigious IITs. Actually Anand Kumar himself at one point of time hoped to study at Cambridge University in Britain, but when acute financial problems saw him giving up that dream, he set up Super 30 to help poor students, providing free residential coaching.

Anand and his innovative school have earlier featured in international magazines and on TV news channels. Europe’s Focus magazine paid tribute to Kumar’s ability to unleash hidden talent, while London’s Monocle listed him among the 20 top teachers of the world. Time magazine has earlier described Super 30 as the “best of Asia”, while Newsweek had listed the school as one of the world’s four innovative schools. Discovery Channel, which made an hour-long documentary on Anand Kumar and Super 30, described it as a “revolutionary experiment to bring about social change”, while Yoichi Itoh, chief economist of STB Research Institute, Japan, which also made a film on “Super 30″ for Japan’s NHK channel, dubbed it a “secret weapon of India”.

Only a week ago, University of Tokyo, Japan’s 135 -year-old prestigious national university has decided to admit students from, Anand Kumar’s innovative Super 30 initiative through competition.